On being a rising Black Brazilian designer and focusing on career - Interview with Felipe Sousa

At the helm of one of Brazil's most promising streetwear brands, Felipe Augusto de Sousa Silva (a very Brazilian name, as he himself jokes) is a Brazilian designer and entrepreneur from Minas Gerais who not only had the wisdom to build a brand full of personality, but also passes on and encourages other entrepreneurs to structure a successful business model.

"We multiply our knowledge more by sharing than by retaining it. I want to contribute to the market, because if the market matures, the brand prospers," explains the CEO of KACE, who reinforces his brand's positioning so that people can see themselves in a position of power. "I want people to want more, to like themselves more, and to see that they can reach great heights," he adds.

From latent shyness to the focus that came with maturity

Born in Sabará, a historic city located just over 20km from Belo Horizonte, the black designer comes from a family that has always valued work, and it couldn't be different for him.

Photo: Felipe Sousa - Designer and Founder of the Brand 

When asked about who Felipe Sousa is, he didn't hesitate to say that he's a focused guy, but he used to be very shy, and as he matured, he discovered that he always relates his life's purpose to his work. "As things started happening [professionally], I began to discover this new Felipe. Currently, I meditate every day, I've matured my personality, I've become much more focused, I've slowed down, and I've understood myself as a person," he said.

The experience of the young entrepreneur from Minas Gerais is enviable. Very early on, Felipe was aware that he wanted to build his own castle and he didn't lose sight of his goal. And an idea that started unpretentiously with a project from a technical computer course, when he was just 16, has now become a powerhouse of urban fashion.

"Studying at the technical school was a turning point in my life. When I went there [to school], it was a whole new world for me in how I perceived things. My mind exploded [like the emoji] and it changed my horizons," he recounted.

The first steps towards creating KACE

The process of creating the venture began while still in technical school. "There was an IT and web design project at school to create a fictitious company, structure the website, and I created a clothing store called 'Pulse - Skate Shop,' and that was the first step," he says.

Soon after leaving school, Felipe went to work in other areas unrelated to fashion and commerce. After a short period in the job market, he realized it no longer made sense and decided to quit for good.

In 2014, with a strong desire to undertake and an aptitude for web work, he developed the website for his first store, Ômega, and used his entire credit card limit as initial capital. "I had a limit of 2,000 reais and bought imported clothes to resell," the entrepreneur said.

After that, the evolution was gradual, yet accelerated. A year after starting his online store, he studied a lot and launched his first authorial brand, Kaos, which would later become KACE. The store in his home garage was launched in April 2015, and in October 2016, he inaugurated his physical space in the center of Sabará. In June 2019, he moved the location to Savassi, in Belo Horizonte. "We came to the most expensive square meter in BH," he jokes.

When Felipe made the transition from the brand, from Kaos to KACE, he was going through a moment of rediscovering himself as a person, his goals, what he truly wanted for his professional life, how he should position himself as a brand. "KACE carries the audacity of my previous projects, but it is a smarter, more mature, and elegant brand. When I launched KACE, it was in the way it should be so that the market and people would perceive it positively," he explains.

He still envisions great achievements with KACE – an acronym for Keep Advancing and Conquer Everything. The phrase is like a mantra for the designer and ends up encouraging many other young people to never give up on their goals.

Black Designer - The challenge

The designer explains how his origin directly influences the construction of his personality. "My family background has a certain identity void; whether we want it or not, things are built as we progress, because every peripheral or black family in Brazil has a break in history. We are not sure of our identity, of knowing where we came from and who our ancestors are," he reflects.

Because of this, Felipe states that positioning himself as a black man came with early adulthood and also with maturity. "One thing is to know and feel that you are. Another thing is to position yourself that way. For the construction of decolonial thought, a lot of study and reflection is needed," he asserts.

Regarding working with fashion, specifically, he says that, in general, investing in this sector in Brazil is complex for everyone. "Regardless of whether the person has money or is poor, black, white... tax rates, labor charges, are heavy for everyone. As a black man, I realize that I have to work much harder to achieve half the results of other people. Because the truth is that today, what my brand does in terms of revenue, very few independent brands in Brazil do. That's undoubtedly true. And we have to fight much harder for the specialized media to notice and respect us. But seeing this will be inevitable, that KACE will become one of the biggest brands in the country. The numbers don't lie. I see this in relation to the market's stance," reports the black designer.

Want to know more about KACE's work? Visit www.kacewear.com.br and see more.